Yaya Toure is convinced Manchester City are starting to see the best of him.

The Ivory Coast midfielder arrived from Barcelona this summer with high expectations but struggled to match his star billing with consistent performances during the first few weeks of the season. But the 27-year-old's last couple of performances, against Fulham and Bolton, have shown a marked improvement on what has gone before.

"I feel I am getting closer to my best each time I play," Toure told www.mcfc.co.uk. "I have had to change the way I play because I am more of a central midfielder by nature. But I get forward a lot more at City and I am still adapting to the change."

Toure will hope for more of the same at West Ham on Saturday, but having lost at Wolves already this term and being held by Birmingham when Alex McLeish's men were in the bottom three, he knows better than to expect an easy three points.

"West Ham may be bottom but they won't roll over and die for us," said Toure.

"It will be difficult, especially on their own ground, but we know a win will set us up nicely for the Christmas games and extend our unbeaten run, too, which is very important.

"They have some good players and if we allow them to play, they could hurt us.

"We go there in good form and with our confidence high - we can't afford to slip up and need to leave with three points."